Fixed Fight: The War on Parking Tickets
Remember the 2009 iPhone 3G tagline “There’s an App For That”? In the seven years since that commercial people have been working hard trying to create a world where there really IS an app for anything one may need. However, when does an app cross the line between convenience and disturbance?
Recently an app was created to contest parking tickets one may too routinely receive when living in a metropolitan city where parking signs are often old, unclear or may not even be present. The app takes care of the tedious work behind contesting these faulty tickets, and in 2/3 of cases, has proven to win.
As amazing as this app sounds to those who struggle with keeping their windshield clear of tiny paper presents it is quite the opposite for city ticketing operations. Three major cities in California, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have blocked the xerox transmission that the app uses to file their appeals. Does this prove that agencies, such as parking, bank on the difficulty of navigating through their systems in order to appeal a faulty ticket?